barsa

cmangel518

gallogj wrote:I bought this last week when it was a feature woot item. If I have ONE complaint it's that there isn't a SD card slot in these older models. With no SD card slot, there is a limit to how many channels you can install and have show up on your home screen. I installed like 15 channels and it wouldn't let me put more on there! How do they expect me to fit all of the free Food Network channels when I only have 15 or so to choose from?

You might want to reach out to Roku tech support. I have over 30 channels on mine...same model...and no issues.

x 19 x1 I've lost track of all of useless/useful items I've purchased since April 09, 2007.

bwicks

Yes and no; direct out of the box it will not but there is a "channel" that you can purchase that will allow you to try to stream all your home movies (if that is what you are trying to do); however, it is difficult to setup and use. If you have a lot of MPEG4 movies on your home network you want to watch it is probably better to go with WDTV Live.

bhavard

JoeMarfice

Katmandoo122 wrote:Bought this a little while ago on a previous Woot. Since Woot hasn't bothered to ship it yet, can't say how good it is. Hopefully very good though.

Mine arrived last week. It was a breeze setting up, and my roommate attached his Netflix account with no problems.

Setting up a streaming channel for the vids on my computer was less easy. First you install Plex:
https://plexapp.com/
and then you set up a channel. Then Plex crashes 4-5 times. Then you delete the channel and start over. Then it works.

Plex is freeware, and in beta, so YGWYPF, but seems to be working OK now. I'll contribute to the project $oon, since it's working for me.

Final analysis: awesome if you have pay video service (Netflix, Amazon, whatever); techie fiddling if you want to stream from your downloaded collection, but workable.

captmeach7

Since there are too many differences between the Roku line ( XD,XDS,HD,2 models) I just bought a Sony player. The Roku 2 HD is $48 on the Roku site and I almost bit, but I just like the features on the Sony better.

cwarren1968

Not directly. You *can*, but you need to install Roku software on your server, and have the video formatted a certain way. I do have a bunch of movies archived on my network, but I use another media player upstairs for that, and I'm not going to reformat ALL my video to do that.

I picked up one of these a while back to (wirelessly) stream Netflix, etc, in the basement. This works fine for my intended usage.

cruzmail

I was very pleasantly surprised by how incredibly easy it was to set up! Simply plug in power AND plug in your choice of component cables (included - you know those red/white/yellow ones) or your own supplied HDMI cable.

That's it. Unit booted up and asked a few setup questions like Wireless network name/password and roku account info (free to sign up but you have to supply a credit card in case you ever purchase one of the non-free channels).

Minutes later I was watching Hulu and Netflix in great quality HD (I used the HDMI cable).

User interface seems VERY easy to use. Reminded my of an old TIVO I used to have. I feel confident even grandma will have no problems using it from time to time.

lightknight

Before our cable company tried to jack up our prices so high that we ended up switching to a company that gave us TV and cable for the same price, we watch Hulu plus and Netflix exclusively.

This box is perfect. You could potentially stop paying for TV at all and just treat Netflix like your movie channel (with plenty of other stuff) and Hulu plus like your TV. We did that and were never without entertainment. (the only difficulty was sports)

SumDuud

ZetaDrac wrote:Same item and price as November 25. What's the point of a Woot-off?

Well if you're going to be like that then consider it matching black friday weekend/cyber Monday prices. The woot off is where they clear out the warehouse, it isn't where you come in and get a better deal... most of the time.

pearmask

I didn't understand for a long time, but now that I've bought a zillion different cables and adapters to accommodate hooking the various laptop models in our household up to our two TVs (one very old with S-video, one newer one with HDMI), I've spent more than I would have spent if I'd just gotten one of these, and we still have issues getting everything to work right. If you watch Netflix/Hulu+/etc., want to watch them on a big TV screen instead of on a computer sometimes, and don't have a TV and computer that happen to play nice with each other, it's a good thing to have.

jawood2

jasonking0351

cswingler wrote:Correct. That's why I hopped on this one - the 2.4GHz band is horribly polluted where I live.

So true! I know their internal testing didn't show much benefit with dual band...but I've got to think that streaming using the dual band would have less contention with a busy 2.4 network in a real world environment.

gill2003

Alright, you guys talked me into it. I just picked one up. From my comparison, it seems price wise the closest comparison is the Roku 2 HD.

What I like about this one over Roku 2 HD:

1080p. Although the TV this is planned for is a tube version, I plan to upgrade soon to 1080p flat screen, so buying this one is thinking ahead.

Ethernet. Right now, I plan to use wireless, but if that doesn't workout like I plan I have the cable to fall back on.

Advanced Remote. Honestly, I don't know what it does special, but it is value added.

What I do not like about this one over the Roku 2 HD:

SD support. I read one grumble about only being able to load 15 channels. The rebuttal claims this may have been a localized problem and that at least 30 channels can be loaded.

This is my first Roku purchase and I think this will be a great entry into internet TV. I am buying the one off Woot since I can get a taste of expanded features at a price I can afford to take a risk at. I have more than one TV and if all goes well I will consider purchasing more of these.

Bottomline: As a newb wanting to take advantage of value priced television programming, I think this is a great purchase.

lalov1

mbrickell

I scrapped cable a while back on principle because I started thinking about what TV was costing me over a 5 year span. Ridiculous. Anyway, I bought an OTA antenna from Radio Shack and got an Apple TV and a Netflix account. No regrets, and saving a ton of $. OTA channels come in with better def than my high def cable ever provided. Much content on Netflix, podcasts, etc. On the odd occasion that I HAVE to have a new release movie, it's Redbox or PPV via the ATV.

You could do the same here, I think, with the Roku substituted for the Apple TV. Your wallet will thank you. OTA antenna + streaming media box of some type + the occasional Redbox or PPV rental = the way to go. If you need more than that, you're watching too much television.

jesuitson

This Roku doesn't support optical audio, s-video or component video. This is fine if you have newer equipment (tv, receiver, etc.) but it will give you problems hooking up to older receivers that use optical audio inputs. Deal breaker for me.

IMO, the best Roku they made with the most connect options was the Roku HD-XR. It had features that the new "top of the line" models don't.

dbcooper

gill2003 wrote:Alright, you guys talked me into it. I just picked one up. From my comparison, it seems price wise the closest comparison is the Roku 2 HD.

What I like about this one over Roku 2 HD:

1080p. Although the TV this is planned for is a tube version, I plan to upgrade soon to 1080p flat screen.

Ethernet. Right now, I plan to use wireless, but if that doesn't workout like I plan I have the cable to fall back on.

Advanced Remote. Honestly, I don't know what it does special, but it is value added.

What I do not like about this one over the Roku 2 HD:

SD support. I read one grumble about only being able to load 15 channels. The rebuttal claims this may have been a localized problem and that at least 30 channels can be loaded.

This is my first Roku purchase and I think this will be a great entry into internet TV. I am buying the one off Woot since I can get a taste of expanded features at a price I can afford to take a risk at. I have more than one TV and if all goes well I will consider purchasing more of these.

Bottomline: As a newb wanting to take advantage of value priced television programming, I think this is a great purchase.

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